


Second First Impressions

by misura



Category: Calamity Jane (1953)
Genre: F/F, Misunderstandings, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27456835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: "Adalaid Adams?" Katie's gentleman said, sounding shocked and awed and unaccountably pleased, before stretching out a hand as if expecting Adalaid to shake it. "Well, I'll be damned."(Adalaid Adams visits Deadwood and is quite surprised by what she finds there.)
Relationships: Katie Brown/Calamity Jane
Comments: 16
Kudos: 30
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Second First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PineapplePrincess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineapplePrincess/gifts).



Small wonder Mr Fryer had seemed reluctant to direct her to Katie's current location: unless Adalaid was very much mistaken (and she most certainly was not), she had arrived upon a scene of canoodling.

Which was perfectly fine, of course; if anything, it was a pleasant surprise Katie had found someone appreciative of the modest gifts Nature had seen fit to bestow upon her, but even so, there was canoodling and _canoodling_ , and Adalaid had no intention of standing by while some dandy young gentleman (to use the term loosely) dragged her Katie's reputation through the dirt with no intention of making an honest (or at the very least a reasonably well off) woman out of her.

"Katie Brown," she said, allowing her tone to add the 'I am shocked, _shocked_ , sir' for the sake of Katie's amour.

Katie jumped back in a way that confirmed Adalaid's worst suspicions, and then she said, "Miss Adams!" in a tone that did the same, and Adalaid thought, _oh dear,_ because Katie was such a nice, obedient girl, and it was all too clear that Adalaid's abandoning her had not done her any good at all.

"Adalaid Adams?" Katie's gentleman said, sounding shocked and awed and unaccountably pleased, before stretching out a hand as if expecting Adalaid to shake it. "Well, I'll be damned."

Adalaid gave him a cold look that she hoped conveyed that he would indeed, if he had so much harmed a hair on darling Katie's head.

"Miss Adams!" Katie said again. "I - " She wrung her hands.

Adalaid would have loved to skip to girl talk right away, but information was of paramount importance, and with her present, there would hardly be any more canoodling going on. "Katie. Why don't you introduce me to your gentleman?"

Said gentleman adopted an expression of shock that would not have been out of place on a stage. He looked barely old enough to shave, all smooth-cheeked and dirt-faced. "Katie! What's this, you got some feller you ain't told me about?"

On the one hand, Adalaid appreciated his self-knowledge, which was to say his acceptance of the fact that the term 'gentleman' could not be claimed by some young hothead seeking to take advantage of sweet, innocent girls with no one to look out for them.

On the other hand, this was quickly turning into something of a farce.

"Calam!" Katie said. "Of course not! You know I wouldn't do that to you."

Adalaid decided that Feelings were quite definitely involved - a bit more on Katie's part than on the part of this Calam fellow, more was the pity. But then, a steady hand might drag a man to church yet, and there was no steadier hand than Adalaid's when it came to these matters - as she had proven in the matter of Harry.

"Then what's all this about some feller she wants to meet?" Calam asked, looking around as if expecting to find someone sneaking around in the bushes.

"She's talking about you," Katie said, and oh yes, Adalaid decided, they would do quite well indeed. Nothing like a smart woman to keep a foolish man in check, often as not without him even noticing.

"Me?" Calam stared at Adalaid. " _Me_?"

Adalaid opened her mouth to graciously confirm and perhaps make an appeal to his better nature and a discreet inquiry as to his personal wealth (this _was_ Deadwood, after all; one never knew) but Calam beat her to it by bursting out into most un-gentleman-like laughter.

Katie flushed. Adalaid made a note to tell her later that there was no point in getting embarrassed over men; they _would_ act the fool from time to time, and it was a woman's lot to stand by and suffer with dignity and in the security of her superior intellect.

"You thought - " Calam wheezed. Adalaid smiled, because it did one no good to teach another lady's gentleman any manners. For some reason, this set Calam off again.

Adalaid allowed a more than generous amount of time for him the regain his senses. "I fail to see what's so amusing, Mr ... Calam?"

Calam howled, prompting Adalaid to reconsider her earlier position: a quick kidnapping to a more civilized place might serve Katie a good deal better than continued exposure to this kind of unhinged individual.

"Oh, Miss Adams," Katie said. "Calam's not a gentleman. She's a - "

"Adalaid Adams!" Calam said, slapping Adalaid on the shoulder in a way that was, perhaps, barely acceptable coming from a fellow woman. "Mistaking me for a feller! If that don't beat all!"

Adalaid rather felt that Katie Brown, shy, quiet Katie Brown, canoodling with another woman easily beat mistaking a woman who dressed, talked and acted like a man for a man. Still, there was a time and place to contradict people, and this didn't seem to be it.

"Now, to be fair," Calam said, "if Katie here hadn't said who you was, I'd have hardly recognized you either. Reckon it's the fact you're all dressed, not half-nekkid. So I figure that means we're even, what?"

"Yes," Adalaid said, summoning a smile. "I suppose we are."

"May we invite you in for some tea, Miss Adams?" Katie asked.

"There's pie, too," Calam said.

"Well, if there's pie," Adalaid said.

"I'm happy for you," Adalaid said, as soon as Calam (which turned out to be short for 'Calamity', which was _not at all_ alarming), because saying, _'I sent you a telegram from Paris and you were nowhere to be found'_ would be unkind.

She had seen the banner on the theater; it was obvious what had happened. In a town like this, with the only woman dressing like Calam - well, it didn't take a very large or shiny pearl to stand out in the muck. To be honest, Adalaid was pleasantly surprised that Katie had chosen to take up with Calam, rather than some local young gentleman whose eye she'd caught at the theater.

Then again, it wasn't as if Katie had ever had much talent. Combined with her shyness, she'd probably _had_ had to beat them off with a stick - for the first few weeks, until they'd wisened up and started behaving themselves, content with looking, but not touching, and Katie, in turn, happy to be looked at and not touched. No doubt it was considered a most satisfactory arrangement by at least some of the people involved, and as long as Katie was among them, Adalaid wouldn't dream of interfering.

"Thank you, Miss Adams," Katie said. "Oh! I suppose I shouldn't be calling you that anymore, should I?"

Adalaid shrugged. "It's fine."

"I - I'm doing a show this evening. Will you come? Please say you'll come!" Katie said.

Adalaid made a mental note to be generous. It would do Katie no good to be told she was something she wasn't; an adoring public in Deadwood could not be compared or counted on to guarantee an adoring public in Chicago, but even so, one might be honest without being hurtful. "Of course I'll come. I wouldn't miss it for the world, my dear."

Katie flushed with pleasure. Adalaid realized she'd missed the girl. Monstrously selfish, of course, given that Katie seemed to have done for herself well enough, but there it was. "Thank you, Miss Adams. Oh - I did it again, didn't I?"

Adalaid was spared having to resist the temptation to pat her hand and tell her to man up already (in a manner of speaking, naturally, real men as a rule falling somewhat short of the platonic ideal) by Calam returning with freshly-chopped wood they hadn't, in fact, needed.

"There. What's you talking about then?" Calam said, sitting down and helping herself to another slice of pie.

It was excellent pie, and with Calam's example, Adalaid decided it could hardly be considered poor manners to take another slice as well, after seeing to it Katie got one, too.

"Say, wasn't you supposed to have a feller?" Calam asked, before either Adalaid or Katie had had a chance to respond to her question. "What, he too afraid of them Injuns to come here?"

"Oh, Harry had some business to take care of in Paris," Adalaid said.

Katie looked up, so Adalaid added, "We both like our independence, Harry and I."

"You should bring him 'round some time," Calam said. "Betcha all the fellers round here are just dying to see what sort it takes to snatch the famous Miss Adalaid Adams."

Adalaid chuckled. "I'm sure they do, Miss Cannary."

"Oh, please. Any friend of Katie's is a friend of mine, and all my friends're calling me Calam."

Adalaid smiled. "Very well, Calam. Then, perhaps I should tell you that to his friends and family, Harry's actually Harriet."


End file.
